


An Impressive Capability to Move On and Start Over

by Annide



Series: 1998, or the year everything changed [18]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Harry Potter Raises Teddy Lupin, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Moving On, Multi, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Recovery, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23974129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annide/pseuds/Annide
Summary: New Year's Eve: After everything that happened at the end of the war, everyone comes together to celebrate the end of the year, and more. They are ready to start a new chapter of their lives, though it might take some time to figure everything out.aka I scrapped the epilogue and made my own
Relationships: Angelina Johnson/George Weasley, Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Katie Bell/Alicia Spinnet, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom/Charlie Weasley, Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood/Daphne Greengrass, Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas
Series: 1998, or the year everything changed [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/209426
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	1. 1998

**Author's Note:**

> This story isn't a standalone. A lot of things might not make sense if you haven't read any of the fics in this series.  
> Here are the parts I suggest you read before this one: Part 1 or 9, Part 2, Part 4, Part 13 and Part 17

It didn’t feel real. That all these people they knew were gone. That they would never see them again. It had all happened so fast. One day they were at war, scared for their lives, hiding or trying to keep their life going as best they could. The next, a whole bunch of their friends were dead, but they had peace. It didn’t feel real. None of it did. Even the years they’d spent during the war hadn’t felt real. Grieving what they’d lost was one thing, but moving on from a situation that hadn’t necessarily felt all that real for most of them, except those directly involved, was confusing and seemingly impossible.

Alicia hadn’t been all that involved. She’d been a member of Dumbledore’s Army in her last year at Hogwarts and she came back to participate in the Battle, but outside of that, she hadn’t really been close to what was going on. She mostly just kept living her life, though scared, worried and in a kind of daze. None of it felt real except the fear. She was never sure that it was safe for her to go anywhere, but at the same time, she knew she was luckier than a lot of others.

It was a giant who did it. She’d brought her broom for the Battle, and had been smart to do so. Flying was a good way to avoid getting stepped on. It allowed her to see what was going on around the grounds better and send curses from afar. As well as attack the giants from a much better vantage point. She felt practically invincible as she felt the wind through her hair and successfully avoided every hit thrown at her. But it didn’t last. She got cocky and let herself be distracted and didn’t notice a giant’s hand hitting a tower near her. She was thrown off her broom by pieces of wall, fell from a great height and landed on the ground with a scream that would’ve woken up the whole castle had the sounds of the Battle not already filled the air all around them. Rocks trapped her leg and she was officially done fighting.

She spent the remainder of the Battle afraid that the acromentulas would find her and eat her. By the time it was all over and she was found, it was too late to save her leg. She spent weeks in St Mungo’s, sad and wondering how she’d ever get past that. And then she realised. She could still play Quidditch with one leg. She spent the following months getting back on track, getting fitted with a prosthetic, learning how to walk and move with it. She worked tirelessly and Katie was by her side the entire time.

She didn’t know how it happened, how she was lucky enough to not only pull through all of these challenges, but also lucky enough that it turned out the straight girl she’d had a crush on for years actually wasn’t straight. She still couldn’t fly, and it was a long way to playing Quidditch again, but she had a great girlfriend and she was happy.

It had been a scary, difficult and painful year. A lot of the people Alicia knew had trouble making it through and dealt with a lot of issues. She heard how much they all struggled and wished she could’ve been around more to help. May had been tough for her too, and she’d barely gotten out of her room, but after that, she’d been mostly fine. Yes, she’d had setbacks and had wanted to give up so many times, but it was the way it was, things like this took time. She knew what losing her leg implied, she knew every step in front of her to get better and learn to live without it. She grieved that loss, just like the loss of people. Somehow, she managed to keep her head up and move past that. She felt lucky in a way. Her issues were physical. It was clear, it was visible, there was a clear path ahead for her. Others had it much harder as far as she was concerned. George and Ginny dealt with mental health issues. It was messy and confusing and intangible.

Alicia sometimes woke up with pain in the leg she’d lost and sat on the floor of her apartment staring at the reflection of the other one in a mirror and fell back asleep like that. Ginny admitted to her that even with her routine of being back in school and support group, she still woke up from nightmares and couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards. There was no solution to that, nothing that could help the way a mirror helped Alicia.

Alicia went to her own support group, with other amputees from the Battle. As well as she was doing with all of it, there were others who had a lot more trouble. Michael Corner had lost his wand arm and had trouble performing the simplest spells. Some of them still could barely get out of bed, some didn’t know how to go on from there, some had their dreams ruined. It broke her heart to hear them talk about it. She felt guilty for handling it all so well. Katie constantly had to remind her that her support to them was what they needed the most, that she was doing enough and that it was okay for her to feel good. She didn’t know if she believed any of that.

Everyone had their own ways of coping with the aftermath. The months following the Battle saw a lot of changes in how they interacted with each other and how the world worked. They were all trying their best to find their footing in this new reality that was arguably not all that dissimilar to what it used to be in between the wars. Some needed to be on their own a while, some clung to their friends and family, some feared it was only another period of temporary peace before a third war erupted. Voldemort might be dead, but it didn’t magically erase his followers’ beliefs.

When the end of the year arrived, most of them needed to blow off some steam and just celebrate the fact they’d made it through 1998, unlike so many others. The Battle of Hogwarts had brought many fatalities, but not everyone who was alive when it was over survived the rest of the year. Some fell ill from being exposed to smoke and curses, some took their own life, some were murdered in retaliation. The funerals didn’t stop after May. The remaining months of the year brought as many deaths as the Battle itself.

So, when the invitation came, despite how strange and unexpected it was, Alicia jumped on the occasion. A New Year’s Eve party, why not. Katie wasn’t sure it was a good idea, because it was at Gregory Goyle’s place, but Alicia thought it might be fun. And nothing stopped them from leaving if it wasn’t. She could walk on her prosthetic leg without a cane now, might as well show that off.

The house, if you could even call it that with how big it was, was packed. Goyle had invited all of his friends and their friends. Alicia and Katie got word of the party from Oliver. He was dating both Percy Weasley and Daphne Greengrass now. His girlfriend was a Slytherin in the same year as Goyle and so was invited directly by the host. The three of them couldn’t come themselves, but had been kind enough to pass the information along. There was a lot of room for this thing to get overcrowded and degenerate, but it would certainly not be boring.

“Welcome to my party!” Goyle said when he saw them. He stayed by the door like a surprisingly involved host considering what this was. “You two were on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team, weren’t you? Oli must’ve told you about this. Glad you could come.”

“Thanks.” Katie said. “Nice house.”

“My mom and her friend who lives with us went on a trip to celebrate being free from their husbands since they’re both locked in Azkaban. I’ve got the house to myself on New Year’s Eve, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to have some fun.” He was clearly drunk, or not far from it, despite it still being afternoon. Alicia was having fun already.

* * *

Harry arrived at the Burrow fairly late in the afternoon. Teddy didn’t care that it was New Year’s Eve and they had somewhere to go, you can’t just convinced a baby to get down for his nap that easily. And then you certainly won’t wake him up because it’s time to go. So Harry had to sit by the crib, all dressed and ready to go, with Teddy’s outfit in his lap, throwing looks at his watch to see how late it was getting, waiting for him to wake up so they could head out.

He thought he’d be the last one there for sure, but somehow the Lovegoods, who lived closest, managed to get there not long after he did. And Charlie came rushing in as they were sitting down to eat, his clothes messier than ever. Though it didn’t stop him from commenting on George’s hair now half as long as his and Bill’s.

“I thought my son might be here too.” Narcissa Malfoy said, clearly uneasy in their presence. It was obvious she’d hoped for another friendly face there. Harry was surprised Dromeda had convinced her to come at all.

“Goyle invited him to a party and since they’ve barely gotten back on good terms he thought he’d go.”

They’d had to extend the table from the kitchen to the living room to fit all twenty-two of them at it. It was very crowded, and they all sat very close to each other, but they were together, happy and there was nothing more they could ask for. Narcissa even made a joke about how if she could’ve thrown her husband out of the house, they would’ve had plenty of space at the manor for such a gathering, but alas Lucius was on house arrest. Hence why she’d moved in with Dromeda.

“Draco mentioned wanting to create a counter-spell for the curse that killed Theo, how’s that going?” Daphne said.

“It’s a process. It takes time and he’s not very patient. But he’s made progress. So far, all he’s come up with is sanaresempra. It makes a person constantly heal. It could have many very useful purposes.” Harry explained. “Draco is frustrated because it doesn’t stop sectumsempra, it turns it into torture. The person keeps getting cut, but it heals. It buys time to help them though.”

“He’ll figure it out eventually.”

“I hope you’re right. He keeps saying that Theodore would’ve already, that he’s not smart enough and should’ve been the one to die. It’s getting hard to watch, so I’m wishing for sooner rather than later.”

“You can’t expect him to be okay so soon after losing two of his childhood friends, one of which he was in love with, Harry. It’ll take time, like it’s taking all of us.” Arthur said.

“I think Harry meant it more like Draco is pushing himself too hard and he’s out of his depth trying to help him.” Hermione said, once again finding words for feelings Harry didn’t know how to express.

“Harry is always out of his depth with anything to do with feelings, you’ve said so yourself many times.” Ron said.

“Don’t think you’re any better. If anything, you’re worse. Lucky I love you anyway.”

This made everyone laugh. It was the first time absolutely everyone at the table was on the same page, all laughing. It had taken a while. The Grangers, Mr Johnson and Mrs Malfoy were unfamiliar with the rest of them and slightly uncomfortable at first to be surrounded by so many strangers who lived the war a very different way than them. Hermione’s parents had never spent much time around wizards other than yearly trips to Diagon Alley. But as the night went on, everyone felt more at ease.

* * *

Draco was in the kitchen, getting reacquainted with his friends. Or more accurately the one friend he had who was here and not busy walking around his house drunk. With Crabbe and Nott dead, and Zabini wanting nothing to do with either of them anymore, the Slytherin group had become sparse. Since Goyle was being an excellent host, it left Draco and Pansy alone to discuss, surrounded by a group of Hufflepuffs.

He was uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to being around so many people anymore. He was a little like that on Christmas too, but Harry and Teddy’s presence had been calming somehow. Pansy was getting along surprisingly well with Hannah, Susan and Ernie. He felt a little out of place in a party of the sort. Which clearly wasn’t Justin Finch-Fletchley’s case as he danced on the coffee table.

“Is Neville Longbottom here?”

Charlie Weasley walked in. Everyone waved at him, excited to see him. The guy was pretty popular and no one expected him to make an appearance. He told Alicia he was just popping in quickly before heading to the Burrow for dinner. He made the rounds, talked to a few people, and had a drink with the members of the Quidditch team who were here and not at the Weasley’s, where he should be. He finally found Neville, grabbed his hand and led him upstairs to a guest room.

“I missed you, hot herbologist.”

“Is that what you’ll tell your mom to explain why you’re late? That you just had to stop on the way to fuck a plant nerd?”

“I come directly from Romania, I don’t need an excuse.”

Charlie was already busy kissing Neville’s neck and getting his shirt off. Neville pushed him down on the bed and straddled him, a grin forming on his lips. He missed him too. They’d been writing to each other, of course, but it wasn’t the same as being in the same room, skin touching skin, lips exploring each other’s bodies.

Meanwhile, downstairs, a group of D.A. members sat in the living room, where Justin was still dancing on the table. Alicia sat on Katie’s lap on the couch, next to Lee Jordan who looked like he had forced himself to come at all. Padma told them she literally pulled her sister out of the house to bring her here. Parvati hadn’t left the house much at all since Lavender’s funeral, she didn’t really know what to do without her best friend around.

“Dean, Seamus, why did you even come to this party if all you’re going to do is make out with each other instead of actually hang out with people?”

“Well, maybe if you could say something actually interesting, Zach, we’d pay more attention.” Seamus said.

Terry and Anthony laughed, granting themselves punches on the shoulder from Zacharias who sat between them on the floor. Everyone joined in. It felt good to laugh. It released stress and tension like nothing else. Cho thought it helped even more than crying. It certainly brightened the mood more. After months of grief and isolation, it was such a pleasure to be reunited with all of the other members of Dumbledore’s Army, catch up and have some actual fun. It was surprising that it happened at Gregory Goyle’s New Year’s Eve party, but if one thing was certain, it was that a lot of things had changed that year.


	2. 2003

"I'm not sending my son to muggle preschool." Draco said.

"Oh, he's your son now? Because if I remember correctly, last week when he had his phase of making himself look like Kreacher's brother, you said he was my son." Harry answered.

Harry and Draco were in their living room at Grimmauld Place helping Luna get ready. They wished they had more help. They had no idea what they were doing, and she wasn’t exactly the most focused person. Dean was really doing most of the work. He had done something quite impressive with her hair and it was no surprise his wands had the reputation of being the most beautifully designed in the entire wizarding world. People came to Ollivander’s from all around to buy his wands, even since Ollivander himself passed away last year.

They’d lost Seamus a while ago. Which worried them. Every single time he’d ended up alone with the kids, any of the kids, it turned bad. He somehow managed to give them ideas and so often they ended up breaking things. Like it wasn’t enough for him to break curses in Egypt, he also had to get his friends’ kids to break their houses. All the Weasleys were at the Burrow getting everything set up and helping Ginny get ready. There were a lot to do and the kids would’ve been in the way, so they dropped them off here, where they could play with Teddy. And destroy a house Harry had spent an eternity renovating.

“Kid is messy. If school gets kid out of Kreacher’s house, then Kreacher is on Mr Potter’s side.”

“That’s unfair, you just don’t want to have to clean up after him, that’s not a real argument.”

“Muggle preschool would let Teddy get another perspective, Draco, and open his mind to a different world.” Luna said. “His grandfather was a muggle, wouldn’t it be nice for him to know more about that? He’ll still end up at Hogwarts in a few years.”

“I feel like you’re ganging up on me. We don’t even need to hear from Dean, he’s a muggleborn, he’ll agree with you.”

“I do agree with them. Sorry.”

“We should’ve had this conversation at Pansy and Hannah’s wedding last month, I would’ve had some allies there.”

“You think Hannah and her Hufflepuff friends would’ve taken your side?” Harry could barely stop himself from laughing.

“Mine would’ve. And you don’t know, they haven’t been to muggle school and they did great, they might agree with me. It’s dangerous. It could expose our world to the muggles.”

“I went, I did magic and no one figured it out, Draco. Just like every muggleborn child. It’ll be fine.”

“You were also bullied incessantly for being different. Our son already changes his appearance all the time. He never has a normal hair colour, how is that going to work? How will we explain his blue hair?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I’ve been weird and bullied throughout my years at Hogwarts, and I turned out just fine with support from my friends.” Luna chimed in, prompting Draco to give Harry a look as if she just proved his point. Harry simply laughed.

They heard a loud noise coming from upstairs. They did break something. They could hear Victoire from down here, screaming at the boys that they messed up. She might only have been three and a half, but when she was around Teddy and Freddie, it felt like she was the eldest cousin.

“Seamus, you’re supposed to be watching them!” Draco yelled. “You’ll wake up the baby and Angelina will kill us all for ruining her daughter’s sleep schedule.”

“What did she expect though? She knows how the boys are together.” Harry said. “And it’s common knowledge that the two of us can barely handle one kid, let alone four.”

“I’d give most of the credit to Kreacher, Dromeda and Narcissa for Teddy still being alive. It’s a miracle either of you even made it through Hogwarts at all.” Dean took a few steps back and observed his work. “Anyway, I think I’m done here. Luna, you are a beautiful bride and Ginny will be speechless when she sees you.”

Luna smiled even brighter. Harry felt such pride seeing her so happy. She used to have no friends at all and be bullied because she was a little different. Now, she was surrounded by friends, about to get married into a wonderful family. She’d come so far.

“So, are we ready to go?” Draco said. “I mean, once we get the kids into their wedding clothes.”

“Yeah, I think we are. Did you want to stop by the Manor on the way?” Harry said.

“We can’t. You know how it is. It’ll be just a quick stop, but then someone will have an issue that requires a Healer and I won’t be able to leave for another hour or two. We’re already running late.”

“Alright. But you know we can’t be late, right? We have one of the brides with us, they can’t start until we’re there.”

“Still, I think it’s best we go tomorrow. And then we can get everyone’s opinion on Teddy’s school.”

“If you really want to.”

Draco had inherited the Manor after Lucius drank himself to death two years ago. As he’d already made himself a home of Grimmauld Place, and a family of Harry and Teddy, he had no desire to move back there. It now housed Narcissa, Dromeda, their refuge for victims of abuse, as well as Mrs Goyle, Mrs Crabbe and their son. Gregory was now a bartender at the Hog’s Head, working alongside Aberforth.

Harry went by there regularly. He had quit the Auror’s office during the summer to accept McGonagall’s offer to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He came home to Grimmauld every weekend, but still lived at the castle during the week. He missed Draco and Teddy terribly, but it was worth it, he enjoyed teaching much more than chasing dark wizards. Dromeda took care of their son during Draco’s shifts at St Mungo’s. Neither of them actually needed to work. They both had a nice fortune inherited from their fathers, and Draco had been rewarded a good amount of galleons for creating nunquamsectum, the counter spell to sectumsempra.

They had barely arrived at the Burrow, that already they had lost three out of four kids. And only because Roxanne couldn’t walk yet. Knowing the boys, they had probably gone to play with the gnomes, if they could find any. Molly would’ve made sure to have the garden degnomed before the wedding. Talking of whom, she was walking right toward them.

“Oh Harry! Hagrid told us about your uncle, I’m sorry. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. We hadn’t talked since I left, you know the night George lost his ear.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re not sad. How was the funeral?”

“It was good. It was nice to see aunt Petunia again. And turns out I was right to keep Draco and Dudley apart all this time. These two have way too much in common. They got so absorbed in their conversation, they forgot I was there.”

“I would never forget you’re there, but I was happy to finally meet your cousin. I think we’ll be great friends. He wants us to bring Teddy over for dinner sometime.”

“Sure, let’s do that. Dudley can help me convince you about muggle preschool. He’d be helpful for once in my life.”

“No matter the reason, your cousin probably would love some company. He just lost his father, it must be hard.” Molly said.

“Yeah, he is taking it pretty hard. They were really close.”

They finished getting everything ready. It was a much smaller wedding than Bill and Fleur’s had been. They’d only invited close friends and family. That’s all Ginny and Luna needed. The ceremony was beautiful, everyone cried. Even George and Ron rushing in late in the middle of it couldn’t ruin anything. It made the brides laugh. Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes was still going strong and the two of them were always really busy. Molly, Percy and Fleur did complain about the cold, questioning what kind of person would host a wedding outside on New Year’s Eve, but eventually emotions took over them. Bill, Charlie and Oliver had spent most of the afternoon setting up heaters everywhere so it felt comfortably warm under the tent.

Since Harry and Draco had taken care of the kids all day, Angelina and Fleur offered to get Teddy to bed for them while they put down Freddie, Victoire and Roxanne. So they stayed at their table, enjoying a nice relaxing conversation with Ron, Hermione and Lee. They could see Ginny and Luna still on the dance floor. They’d done the father-daughter dance already and had now switched. Luna was waltzing with Arthur, while Ginny tried to keep up with whatever it was Xenophilius was doing. Molly stood to the side, a proud smile stamped on her face and her eyes bright with tears of joy.

“Where’s Neville?” Lee asked. “I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Probably off somewhere having sex with my brother.” Ron said.

“Are they still doing that?” Draco thought the distance would’ve ruined them by now, but they didn’t have a relationship like any other.

“Whenever they’re in the same country. Charlie says it’s the best relationship he’s ever had. No strings, no pressure to actually see each other. They just enjoy hanging out whenever they can.” Hermione said. “It makes sense. If they get along and neither has any intention of moving, what they have works.”

“Must be fun, Harry, to be back at Hogwarts, working with Neville and Hagrid.” Lee said.

“It is. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that earlier. I was so caught up in the war and going after Voldemort, it felt like I couldn’t just stop. But McGonagall was right, I was meant to teach.”

“You sure did a great job of it with the D.A.”

“Even in fifth year, I knew you’d be great at it.” Hermione said.

“Yes, and you were right, as always, we should all listen to you more.”

Even after five years, Harry still had trouble getting used to George’s long black hair. Maybe it was because it made him stand out among the Weasleys, a reminder of the one they lost. Maybe it reminded him of Sirius, with his own long dark hair. Whatever it was, it felt new and unusual every time he saw it. But George kept saying it made them look more like actual brothers and it warmed Harry’s heart to hear him refer to him that way.

Eventually, everyone came back to the reception, and they all gathered on the dance floor, happy like never before, looking forward to living the rest of their lives like this. The family they chose. It grew every year, and it became harder to find the time to be all together like this, but they were still always there for each other when they needed to be. It was all Harry wanted for his son, to grow surrounded by love and support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who actually read this series!


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